The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for storing moving picture data in a format that allows easy search of moving picture data.
In recent years, along with the advance of moving picture data compression techniques such as MPEG and the like and the advent of recording media with larger capacities, moving picture data can be distributed using, e.g., the Internet. Also, even end users can store a large number of digital image data.
When the operator selects a moving picture he or she wants to see from a large number of moving picture data, he or she must check the contents by playing back moving picture data one by one at double speed or repeating fastforwarding and playback.
However, in such conventional method, the user must spend much labor and time due to troublesome operations until he or she finds a desired moving picture.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an image processing apparatus and method, which can easily and adequately confirm the contents of moving picture data.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data structure suitable for achieving the above object.
It is still another object of the present invention to allow an easy search to obtain desired moving picture data.
In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus of the present invention comprises, e.g., the following arrangement. That is, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising:
specifying means for specifying at least one desired scene in moving picture data, and a frame serving as a key frame in the desired scene;
setting means for setting an importance level of the desired scene specified by the specifying means; and
storage means for storing information indicating the scene and key frame specified by the specifying means and the importance level set by the setting means as scene information in association with the moving picture data.
The image processing apparatus preferably further comprises acquisition means for acquiring feature amount information of the key frame,
the scene information stored in the storage means includes the feature amount information of the key frame image acquired by the acquisition means, and
the apparatus also comprises:
computation means for computing a similarity value between images of a designated key frame and another key frame on the basis of image feature amounts of the key frames when one key frame is designated;
presentation means for presenting key frames on the basis of similarity values computed by the computation means; and
playback means for acquiring and playing back moving picture data including the key frame selected from the key frames presented by the presentation means.
Also, preferably, the scene information includes an image feature amount of an image of each key frame, and the apparatus further comprises:
generation means for generating extracted moving picture data, which can be played back as a moving picture, on the basis of the scene information stored in the storage means;
computation means for computing a similarity value between images of a designated key frame and another key frame on the basis of image feature amounts of the key frames when one key frame is designated;
presentation means for presenting key frames on the basis of similarity values computed by the computation means; and
playback means for playing back the extracted moving picture data generated by the generation means in association with the moving picture data which includes the key frame selected from the key frames presented by the presentation means.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.